Walter Koenig

Birth name:

Walter Marvin Koenig

Date of Birth:

14 September 1936 Chicago, Illinois, USA

Height:

5' 6" (1.68 m)

Biography:

Walter Koenig has had a recurring role of the quintessential bad guy "Bester" on the television series "Babylon 5" (1994). He has been the "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf. He once again plays Bester in the spin-off show "Crusade" (1999). He has also appeared on dozens of other television series and as the character, Chekov, in the "Star Trek" (... more

Walter Koenig has had a recurring role of the quintessential bad guy "Bester" on the television series "Babylon 5" (1994). He has been the "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf. He once again plays Bester in the spin-off show "Crusade" (1999). He has also appeared on dozens of other television series and as the character, Chekov, in the "Star Trek" (1966) TV programs. Koenig recreated the character of the Russian navigator for the first seven Star Trek films and 1988 took the leading role in the video feature, Moontrap (1989). In an interactive state-of-the-art video game from Digital Pictures called Maximum Surge (1996) (VG), Koenig starred as Drexel, another bad guy. Walter completed worked in the low budget feature film Drawing Down the Moon (1997) from Chaos Productions. And has star billing as a German psychologist in the martial arts picture, Sworn to Justice (1996). A one character piece that Koenig wrote and performed entitled You're Never Alone when You're a Schizophrenic was a finalist in the 1996 New York Film Festival awards. Koenig filmed a guest appearance as himself on the CBS situation comedy "Almost Perfect" (1995), did sketch comedy on the Comedy Central series _"Viva Variety" (1996)_ and performed on an ESPN sports commercial that aired in the Spring of '98. The Viacom CD-Rom, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (1997) (VG) in which he reprised the character of Chekov continues to sell impressively. Walter also hosted a cult movie marathon for Comedy Central. It played once a week for the course of a month. Walter Koenig's autobiography, Warped Factors - A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe was released through Taylor Publishing on April 1, 1998. The audio tape reading of the book by the author has been released through Dove Video in January 1999. Koenig performed as the "Shadow Guy" in an episode of "Diagnosis Murder" (1993) and went to New York to perform in a new radio broadcast version of War of the Worlds in tribute to both H.G. Wells and Orson Welles. From the Girls of Summer to The Boys in Autumn, Walter Koenig's stage career spans thirty years and includes stops in New York with A Midsummer Night's Dream (Quince) and Six Characters in Search of an Author (Oldest Son). In Chicago he guested in Make a Million (Johnny) opposite Jackie Coogan and on the road -- from Arizon to Philadelphia -- Mark Lenard (Sarek: Spock's father) and he performed in the short plays Box and Cox (Box) and Actors (Dave). They also toured in a two character play, The Boys in Autumn, the comedy-drama about the reunion of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn forty years later. By himself, Koenig also starred as "Larry the Liquidator" in Other People's Money in Reno, Nevada. His Los Angeles productions include Steambath (God), The White House Murder Case (Capt. Weems), Night Must Fall (Danny), La Ronde (Gentleman), The Typist and the Tiger (Paul), and The Deputy (Jacobson) among almost two dozen others (Blood Wedding, The Collection, et al.). Directorial credits include Hotel Paradiso for Company of Angles, Beckett for Theatre 40, America Hurrah! at the Oxford Theater, Twelve Angry Men at the Rita Hayworth Theatre, Matrix at the Gascon Theatre Institute and Three by Ten at Actor's Alley. Walter has performed in the television movies _Antony and Cleopatra (1983) (V)_ (Pompey) opposite Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave as well as the MOW's Goodbye, Raggedy Ann (1971) (TV) and The Questor Tapes (1974) (TV). Walter has written for the television series "Family" (1976), "The Powers of Matthew Star" (1982), Class of '65, "Land of the Lost" (1974), and the "Star Trek" (1973) animated show. This actor-writer has seen publication with the non-fiction Checkov's Enterprise and the satiric fantasy novel Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot. He also created the three issues of the comic book story Raver published by Malibu Comics. Walter Koenig has taught classes in acting and directing privately and at UCLA, The Sherwood Oaks Experimental Film College and at the California School of Professional Psychology. Most recently he has been an instructor at the Actor's Alley Repertory Company in Los Angeles.